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Maxim Horvath
Maxim Horvath is a powerful wizard and the secondary antagonist of the 2010 fantasy movie The Sorcerer's Apprentice. He is portrayed by Alfred Molina. Once a powerful Merlinean sorcerer, Horvath turned to the dark arts out of jealousy after his love interest favored his best friend. He seeks to bring Morgana le Fay back into the world and help enslave mankind. Horvath uses a cane that was originally created from his old, magic sword with the same gem that was on top of it, to use and unleash his magic powers against his enemies. History He was, along with Balthazar Blake and Veronica Gorloisen, a disciple of Merlin and a force of good more than a thousand years ago. But their mutual love for Veronica split the now former colleagues apart and Horvath has instead become an ally of the wicked Morgana, who murdered Merlin by stabbing him in the abdomen that night at his castle fortress and is sought to conquer the world with an army of undead sorcerers. Fortunately, though he succeed in helping Morgana obtain a script that contains the secret to the most dangerous spell known as The Rising, from Merlin's Encantus, their effort to proceed their plan further fails at hands of both Veronica and Balthazar, but at a terrible price; Veronica asborbed Morgana's soul in an attempt to prevent her from achieving her plan. They were then locked in the Grimhold together. Horvath then disappeared, but not before preparing himself to execute other plans and to recruit other wicked sorcerers to his side. Horvath would then lead fellow sinister sorcerers called Morganians in years to come while Balthazar is the de facto leader of magician known as Merlineans who would use magic for the betterment of humanity and to fight against his sworn enemy. Horvath's Revenge He and Balthazar have battled throughout the ages, finally bringing their conflict to modern-day New York City. Horvath’s mission is world domination. Balthazar is maintaining the Merlinean standard of magic as a power used solely for the benefit of mankind. Horvath is the one who take the Morganian view that magic should be used to subjugate humans. It was until Balthazar defeated and sealed him away in the Grimhold (within the 1920s as revealed in the film's novelization). Then 10-year old Dave Stutler freed Maxim from the Grimhold by accidently dropping and cracking it, and after a struggle with Balthazar, the two were stuck in an urn for ten years. One decade has past, and Maxim Horvath, after breaking from the enchanted urn in the eyes of a frightened, wealthy Russian couple who bought it, went after Dave, sending a pack of wolves after the boy. Yet Balthazar, who had escaped as well, rescued Dave and began sorcerer training. Freeing Morganians, he vowed to destroy Dave, the Prime Merlinean, so that Morgana would be free and send her wrath upon the world. After absorbing energy from other Morganians, he freed Morgana and attempted to kill Balthazar. But it was Dave who defeated him and Balthazar who blasted him away. Horvath managed to escape the battle between Morgana and the Merlinean sorcerers, vanishing about the time Morgana's magical circle was disrupted. Horvath's current whereabouts are not known, though the film's stinger shows an unidentified figure of a man with a cane, heavily implied to be him, retrieving his hat from the Arcana Cabana (this was meant to tease for a possible sequel, which was never made). Appearance Maxim Horvath himself is a short and portly man with dark hair and brown eyes. He wears a grey coat and a tie with a spider jewel on it, black rubber gloves, and a bowler hat. He uses a long, black cane with a blue crystal that glows whenever he spellcasts to channel his magic. (Originally, the cane was a long, medieval sword with the same, blue crystal on its pommel, which he had transformed into a staff.) Powers and Abilities Horvath is a highly powerful sorcerer, who can use magic to perform very potent telekinesis, crushing things and people against a wall or making things fly and remotely controlling them; to animate objects and statues and bring drawings to life (such as the bronze statue of a charging bull and wolves from a wildlife calendar); to cast illusions; to shape-shift; to see the past; to transform things; to command animals and compel people into doing what he wants; to conjure fire, catch it in his hand and throw it as fireballs or powerful fire blasts; to hurl powerful gusts of ; to bewitch objects (such as when he creates a Hungarian Mirror Trap or a Persian Quickrug); to blast his foes with powerful plasma bolts; and to cast a wide array of spells (including the dangerous Parasite Spell). During the course of the film, he aquires Merlin's Dragon Ring (by stealing it from the primary protagonist Dave Stutler), and the catalysts of both Drake Stone and Abigail Williams, attaching them all to his staff, making it extremely powerful. This however, made the staff suspectible to conductivity with surge of energy that made it more difficult to be handled: Dave exploited this by using a tesla coil which blast caused the staff become overload with energy input that Horvath accidently disarmed himself. Following spells that he mastered in the film are: *'Elemental Spells': Horvath has mastered various element-based spells such as: **'Air Blast': Horvath can conjure a powerful gust of wind. **'Plasma Bolts': Horvath can conjure soft ball-sized Plasma Bolts through his cane. **'Fire Ball': Horvath can hurl fireballs from his conjured flame or already existing source. **'Fire Surge': Horvath can conjure a stream of fire like a flamethrower from his conjured flame or already existing source. **'Fire Carving': Horvath can focused heat to for carving purposes. Used to conjure a carved Morgana Star on a New York fry cook's patties to bring his attention. **'Fire': Horvath can caused molecules to shake that resulting spontantenous combustion. Used to create a wall of fire on the water near the center of Morgana Star that summoned by Veronica-possessed Morgana to destroy the Grimhold, but is stopped by Balthazar. **'Fog Spell': Horvath can conjure fog that can either used to locate invisibility-induced spell or conjure smokescreen. **'Plasma Deflection': Horvath can unleash a wide, bluish wave of electrical shockwave that not only pushes away anything that stand in it’s way, but also deflects projectiles like Plasma Bolts. *'Mental Spells': Horvath was talented in using mental power spells such as: **'Telekinesis': With his staff as catalyst, Horvath can levitate and manipulate objects or person without touching them. He even capable to manipulate objects under his control like a marionette. Horvath was very skillful with this spell that he don't have to perform any gesture when casting the spell on few occasions. **'Hypnotism': Horvath can make suggestions on someone’s subconscious to make them do whatever the user wants without him/herself being aware of what they did. Used to hypnotize an NYU administration officer to give location of Dave Stutler's lab. **'Psychic Vision': Horvath can perceives the residual information of an object and/or person by using senses that gave him flashback that occurred around the said object/person. Used to track down Grimhold that revealed to be taken by a Chinese Woman. *'Enchantment Spells': Horvath is expert in enchanting other objects where the said enchantments are: **'Animation Spell': Horvath can bring animal picture/statue/crest/symbol to life at will in form of either actual creatures or simply golems that taking their appearance to perform his biddings. **'Disguise Spell': Horvath can shapeshift himself or other people into someone/something else for either disguise or fooling his foes. **'Car Spell': Horvath can reshape a car into better or worse variant of it. *'Trap Spells': Horvath is expert in using spells to create or enchanted objects into booby traps such as: **'Ectoplasm Trap': Being trained as Merlinean, Horvath can be assumed to very good with conjuring time-manipulating ectoplasm as either a booby trap or an outright offensive attack, but how good he was is unclear. **'Hungarian Mirror Trap': Horvath can enchanted mirrors and other reflective surfaces(usually on solid objects) to locked someone into a reverse world. **'Persian Quickrug': Horvath can enchanted any rugs into taking traits of actual quicksand. *'Parasite Spell': Horvath can fatally absorb other sorcerers' lifeforce with this energy-draining enchantment. *'Magic Combat': A sorcerer of Horvath's level is of course considerably adept in magic-based duels: **'Plasma Bolts': A basic attack spell that fires softball-sized orbs of blue energy. Expert fighters can fire many of them in quick succession, bigger and more damaging (if not lethal) ones, and a fast-paced barrage of highly potent Bolts. **'Plasma Deflection': Horvath can unleash a wide, bluish wave of electrical shockwave that not only pushes away anything in his path, but also deflects back normal projectiles or blasts of magic. **'Magic Shield': Horvath can conjure shields of blue energy to counter any attack coming his way. Personality and Traits Maxim Horvath is a sophisticated, well-manered and cultured man, always impecably collected and polite, even when about to kill someone. But this refined facade hardly veils his cruelty. He is cold-hearted, cares only about himself and disposes off his followers and allies without second thoughts. Though he does have (or had) strong feelings of love for Veronica, and retains a grudging respect for Balthazar. Also, as long as he gets what he wants, he holds his parts of bargains and leaves his foes alive (when he has no interest in killing them). Videogame appearance The traitorous wizard Maxim Horvath appears as both the master of the Space-Time Domain magic in New York's Broadway District and the fifth boss of the Nintendo DS videogame adaptation of Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Arriving at Uptown, the 2 Merlineans realized that Maxim Horvath is pumping Mana (mystic energy of nature) from the Space-Time domain to the entire district as before, which also helping him to summon a monster army so no one can intervene when he unlocked Morgana le Fay’s layer of the Grimhold. Analyzing what Horvath do so far, Balthazar commented that his scheme was like dropping a map and teleporting something to other dimension through the Space-Time domain. Not only that, fighting Horvath will not be easy due to him have 5 rings including his own. Dave had to move fast, as Balthazar senses a Space-Time energy burst. He said Horvath was likely at the center of the energy surge, but he’s yet to sense the Grimhold’s presence. Arriving at the supposed center of the Space-Time domain, Dave and Balthazar did not sense the presence of either the Grimhold or Horvath. Suddenly, Horvath showed up, stating that its is not sporting if they keep following him, making him had no time to stretch his legs. Dave then demanded the Grimhold from Horvath, but Horvath refuses as he is yet to break Morgana’s doll and taunted him. Balthazar told Dave that he shouldn’t take it to the heart, as Horvath already like that for nearly a thousand years, and he confides that Dave can beat him. As the battle between Horvath and Dave began, Balthazar warned Dave that Horvath was the master of Space-Time domain more than other sorcerers, which means he can slow his foes’ movements with his magic. Of course, during the fight, Horvath occasionally summon temporal displacing ectoplasm mines in form of white orbs that would slow down his foes. Despite this, Dave’s experience and skills as sorcerer eventually allowed the young apprentice to defeat him in the end. Unfortunately for the heroes, Horvath revealed that he had released Morgana le Fay not long before they arrived, and at this point, she is looking for perfect place to cast The Rising, the power to control life and death for summoning an army of undead evil sorcerers. The former Merlinean then dangerously casted the Parasite Spell on himself before combining his extracted energy with those of other sorcerers he slain to open the Forbidden domain with the stolen catalysts as a conduit. Though the process seemingly killed him, he managed to open the Forbidden domain at Central Park as means to aid Morgana in casting the spell. Dave then set out to stop Morgana and put an end to this sorcerous war for good. However, Horvath was revealed to survive his suicidal attempt to open the Forbidden domain, with magic in his Cane and the stolen rings placed on it that has kept him alive (as once hinted to his survival on the movie). Quotes }} Gallery Maxim Horvath's defeat.jpg|Horvath's defeat. Horvath.jpg2.jpg The Charging Bull.jpg Maxim Horvath's Wolf.jpg Horvath's Wolf.jpg Horvath's Wolves.jpg Maxim Horvath's Wolves.jpg Young Maxim Horvath.jpg|A young Maxim Horvath. Horvath in Enchantus.jpg|Maxim Horvath as depicted in Encantus. The Villain.jpg|Maxim Horvath as he is portrayed in the poster advertisement of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Horvath cartoon TSA.jpg|Horvath in the videogame adaptation of the film. Trivia *Like other characters in the film, Maxim Horvath undergoes several changes over the course of screenwriting. In the early draft for the film, instead of a centuries-old former Merlinean, Horvath was the leader of the Morganians of the 20th Century. Not only that, but Horvath was stated to be previous Prime Merlinean before Dave as well as former master of Balthazar (who was originally intended to be a former Morganian assassin and apprentice). *Also, Horvath has an established civilian identity as the wealthy chairman of Horvath Global Insurance Group and had resources as a Morganian sorcerer, which explained with his own collection of occult textbooks. His catalyst of choice also stated to be a skull ring (similar to the one worn by Drake Stone) that had glowing red eyes, unlike the magic staff in the final film. By the end of the script, he and the rest of unleashed Morganians were sealed inside the Grimhold that kept within the second Arcana Cabana shop. *Major difference between Horvath's portrayal in early draft and in final film was his relationships with some characters: Early draft of the film showed that he was not as selfish as his portrayal in final film as he never disposed his own allies nor steal other sorcerers' rings (the only exception was when he stole Dave's Dragon Ring that required to unlock the final layer of Grimhold and that ring eventually returned to Dave in the end). He was also already enemies with Veronica from the beginning instead of former love interests. *In the film's prologue where Maxim Horvath was introduced through his Encantus depiction, he is shown to hold vials of potions, suggesting some skills in potion brewing and in greater extent, alchemy. Yet as he never shown demonstrating such skills on-screen, the extent of aforementioned abilities is never revealed. *The bull statue animated by Maxim Horvath, is based the real-life Charging Bull statue in Bowling Green Park near Wall Street in Manhattan, New York. *Though he is intended to be British, "Maxim" is a Russian given name and "Horvath" (Horváth) is a Hungarian surname. Category:Antagonists Category:Morganians Category:Sorcerers Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Male Sorcerers